


Should, Would, Must

by estelraca



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-17
Updated: 2013-02-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 15:59:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/688787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/estelraca/pseuds/estelraca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They should run.  They should save themselves.  But they can't, because all that happened has made them more than what they were.  Set between episodes 47 and 48.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Should, Would, Must

**Author's Note:**

> This was written after I saw episode 47, before episode 48 came out, though I think it works well still. Each of the Gokaiger sections is 200 words; Basco has 500 words.

He should turn away.

He knows that, as his mind takes in the necklace and Basco’s laugh and realizes exactly what’s going to happen. If he’s going to save himself, to save his crew, he needs to leave Sally to her fate.

He can’t, though.

If he’s truly a pirate, truly the man that he’s been pretending to be for the last two years, then he needs to save himself and damn the consequences. After all, it’s not him that placed the necklace around Sally’s neck. It’s not his fault if she dies, and it won’t help anyone if he dies alongside her.

But all he can see is Basco’s face, all he can feel is the impact of the bullet in his arm, and all he can hear is AkaRed’s voice as the man who is the closest thing to a father he’s ever had dies to save his crew.

A crew who died anyway, just as Sally will almost certainly die, but it doesn’t matter. He’s the last of the Red Pirates, because Basco never was, never could be a true member of any crew.

He hopes that his crew will forgive him, someday, for leaving them alone.

***

He should be able to beat him.

He’s one of the best swordsmen in the galaxy. He’s stood against his mentor and dear friend—slain his mentor and dear friend, because it needed to be done.

He should be able to defeat Basco.

The man’s ridiculously good, though, and utterly confident in all of his actions.

That’s something that can’t be said of their crew. They’re terrified, furious, desperate, and it shows in their fighting. They don’t work together or play off each other the way they should.

And he can’t do anything to fix it.

He can’t bring himself to care enough about it to fix it.

Basco hurt Marvelous. Basco may have killed Marvelous.

He wants to run him through. He wants to see Basco’s blood coating his sword, soaking the forest floor, because he can’t get the image of Marvelous’ blood out of his head.

It’s not what Marvelous would want. Marvelous would want him to do what was needed to protect the ship, the treasure, the crew.

Marvelous is probably dying.

As consciousness fades, he only hopes that Marvelous will get the chance to forgive him for no longer being the perfect soldier he once was.

***

Even rewinding time, she can’t beat him.

She’s faced impossible odds before. She kept the children alive for years despite the universe’s best efforts. She faced the Zangyack time and again though everyone thought it was suicide.

She didn’t care then because she hated them—hated every starving hand and hungry face and broken soul and sick body that she couldn’t save and they could except that they didn’t care.

No one ever cared.

She shouldn’t care, maybe. She should be the thief she taught herself to be, disappear in the chaos, the confusion—ensure that something of their little family survives. Maybe grab Ahim if she can, drag her away, give Basco what he wants, and try to start again somewhere new.

She can’t, though. She can’t leave Marvelous while he’s still breathing. She can’t run out on Joe, not while the man’s struggling so desperately to win this unwinnable fight for them.

All she can do is try, roll with the blows, throw everything she has into fighting.

As darkness rises and Basco’s steps draw closer, she hopes her sister will forgive her for joining her too soon.

Sometimes survival just isn’t worth the cost of running away.

***

She never stood a chance.

She knew it from the moment the fight started. Joe and Luka are both outclassed, and Joe and Luka were the ones who taught her to fight. She is under no delusions about having surpassed her teachers in the fighting arts, so fighting is suicide.

She does, anyway.

It is wrong. She is the Queen of her people. She is their hope of rebuilding their society once the Zangyack empire falls. It is her duty to survive, to be the light shining in these darkest of days to tell them that the future holds promise.

Yet it was Marvelous who made a future seem feasible in the first place.

She cannot abandon him or the others.

Even if it will mean that her people will have to find another star to follow, another leader to guide them through the nightmares, she will stand or fall with the pirate crew who hold such kindness in such damaged hearts.

She is unconscious before she hits the ground.

Her last thought is that she hopes her people will understand.

Better to have no queen than to have a queen who has sacrificed her soul to save her life.

***

He’s a coward.

When the Zangyack conquered his planet, he ran. He is certain of that, though he remembers little else from before the Zangyack. Is his memory hazy to prevent him from remembering his cowardice, or to prevent him from seeing the atrocities that birthed it?

After all, what point in courage when the universe belonged to feckless monsters?

What was the point in Marvelous’ bravado, plans, dreams, when it could all be destroyed in an instant? When an act of betrayal was so easy, what was the point in trust?

What is the point in showing courage and dying with them when no one will live to tell the tale?

He can’t abandon them, though. Not when Ahim is trying so hard, throwing her attacks behind Luka or Joe though neither are setting up the combos like they normally do. Not when Joe and Luka are so fixated on Basco, risking their own lives.

Not when Marvelous’ blood is on his hands, hot beneath the fabric of the hero’s garb that he granted to all of them.

He is a coward.

He will die a hero, and he hopes it is what Marvelous would have wanted from him.

***

They should win.

It’s what all the stories say should happen. The world is fair. The universe is fair. There is tragedy, yes, and sometimes there is death, but courage is rewarded with victory. Determination is rewarded with success.

They should win.

They aren’t winning. He uses everything he has, all the power granted to him by the heroic dead, and it still isn’t enough. The enemy is too prepared, too strong, too ruthless, too vicious. Their team is too fractured, fighting alongside each other but not with each other, the terror and possible loss of their Captain a sharp pain in all their hearts.

They should win.

They aren’t going to.

He knows it before the end. He knows it as they attack together, are repelled, get up and try one more time. He can hear the music playing in his head, the swelling chords, the building tension. Some of them are going to die today—maybe all of them, Basco’s face smiling as he slits their defenseless throats.

He died once. He doesn’t want to die again.

But if they die here, at least they’ll die heroes.

It’s the best final gift Marvelous could have given him, really.

***

“All according to plan.” Smirking, he strides forward into the midst of the Gokaiger’s fallen forms. All of them are bleeding, though some bleed worse than others; none of them show any signs of waking soon.

They could have run. They should have run, when they realized exactly how mis-matched their powers were. He had expected it from some of them, at least.

Kneeling down by Marvelous’ head, he turns the man’s face toward him, taking in the bloody nose and raspy breathing.

“You made them like the original Red Pirates. They all decided to die with you, just like everyone decided to die with AkaRed.”

There’s no response from Marvelous. Marvelous is too busy drowning in his own blood, bleeding internally, seeping blood from various scrapes and burns. Did he really think he had a prayer of saving Sally when he reached for the necklace? Or did he just mean to die with her, and save himself the pain of defeat?

“I never did understand you, Marv-chan.” Patting the other man’s face, he stands slowly, surveying the rest of Marvelous’ fallen crew. “So what do I do with your heroes, Marv-chan, old friend? It would be simple if I weren’t on the Zangyack’s most-wanted list too, but you had to go and make me complicate things…”

He could still tie them up, take them back to the ship, attempt to use them as hostages or have some Earthling trade them to the Zangyack for the bounty money. That would involve having to guard them, though, finding someone to make the deal… all in all, it’s more work than he really wants to do.

“Or I could just kill them.” His sword slides along Marvelous’ neck, not hard enough to break the skin, leaving a pale white line behind. “I’m pretty sure you’re dying, but it would be easy enough to kill all of them…”

Marvelous gasps, coughs, choking on blood in his throat.

“Or I could leave them to wake up and find you.” Smiling, Basco reaches down and pats Marvelous’ cheek. “Maybe it’ll help them. Maybe it’ll wake them up and teach them that you can’t have everything, no matter what the crazy men in the red jackets try to tell them. I think I like that plan better, Marv-chan. Maybe they’ll even give you a grave, and some day I’ll come back and put flowers on it. Because this really wasn’t anything personal. Just business, old friend. Just business.”

Marvelous doesn’t move again as Basco gathers the Ranger Keys that the Gokaigers had, pulling them from slack, unresponsive fingers. Some of the others might die, as well, if the way they look now is any indication.

Let them live or die. Let them mourn Marvelous, and realize exactly how wrong his beliefs were.

Basco has the Gokai Galleon, all of the Ranger Keys, all the Ultimate Powers, and soon the Greatest Treasure in the Universe.

There’s really no point in troubling himself with anything else right now.


End file.
